The Trotskyist Movement in Canada,
1929-1939 (1976)

This essay was written in 1976 by an undergraduate
history student at the University of Toronto. The second paragraph says
it is "the first account of any substance on the activities and ideas of
the Trotskyists in Canada from Spector’s expulsion to the beginning of
World War II," a largely accurate statement.

The author has given permission to post it on the
Socialist History Website, but has asked that his name be withheld at
this time.

In actual point of time the Trotskyist movement in
Canada began in 1928 with the expulsion of Maurice Spector from the
Communist Party of Canada (CPC). However, Trotskyism was not a new
movement, a new doctrine in 1928 — it was merely a revival of the
experience and ideas of the 1917 Russian Revolution and the early days
of the Communist International. In the interim Stalin had triumphed in
the Soviet Union and Stalinism was becoming rooted in the Canadian
section and other sections of the Communist International.[1] Because
they pointed out and opposed the rise of bureaucracy in the Soviet
Union, Trotsky and the Left Oppositionists (or anyone else who merely
opposed Stalin) were expelled from the Soviet Communist Party and the
various Communist Parties around the world.

This paper picks up from there and attempts to give the
first account of any substance on the activities and ideas of the
Trotskyists in Canada from Spector’s expulsion to the beginning of World
War II.[2]

Not only in the realm of ideas but also in leadership
the Canadian Trotskyists represent a certain continuity from the early
communist movement. The two key leaders of the CPC in the 1920s were
Maurice Spector and Jack MacDonald, the leaders of the Trotskyists until
about 1937. When the Workers’ Party of Canada (the first name of the
CPC) was founded in 1922 Spector was party chairman and MacDonald was
the secretary. Both men held these positions when they were expelled or
suspended. In addition, three other early leaders of the CPC eventually
joined the Trotskyist movement: Max Armstrong, Malcolm Bruce and Jack
Kavanagh. Armstrong and Bruce did not join until after World War II and
Kavanagh became a leader in Australia.[3]

The Communist Party Expels Spector …

"After James P. Cannon and two other outstanding leaders
in the United States had been expelled, I was asked to support the
action of the United States party. I was asked for my views. I stated
them."[4]

Those are the words of Maurice Spector, quoted by The
Globe, the first paper to report on the expulsion. Spector stated
his views in a statement to the Political Committee of the CPC November
6.[5] On November 11, 1928 the Central Executive Committee expelled the
party’s chairman, the editor of its paper, The Worker, and its
journal, Canadian Labor Monthly, and its only representative on
the Executive Committee of the Comintern: Maurice Spector.

Within a few weeks of Spector’s expulsion about thirty
members of the Communist Party and its youth group, the Young Communist
League (YCL), had been expelled for refusing to endorse the attack on
Trotskyism.[6] Although opposing the expulsions and calling for inner
party democracy was then enough to brand one a Trotskyist, not all the
expelled were Trotskyists and they did not all join in building the
Trotskyist movement.

(During the thirties, and later years, it was not
uncommon for a member of the CPC and/or YCL to be expelled for
"Trotskyism," yet not even know what it was. The expelled member would
then try to find out what a Trotskyist was and often end up joining the
Trotskyist movement.)

A number of the expelled who did become Trotskyists were
active in the needle trades union and this continued to be an important
area of activity for the movement. The first public meeting of the
Opposition was held at the Standard Theatre in Toronto in February,
1929. Spector addressed an audience of about 350. The group would issue
the occasional leaflet on important questions. For example, The
Militant reports the Canadian Opposition issuing a four-page leaflet
on the situation in the Soviet Union and the Comintern and Trotsky’s
deportation from the U.S.S.R., in English, Jewish and Ukrainian.
Although the leaflet was reported distributed in the "important centres
of Canada,"[7] the Opposition was at the time confined to Toronto.

Communist League of America (Opposition)

Until 1934 the Trotskyists in Canada and the United
States functioned as part of a single organization, the Communist League
of America (Opposition) (CLA(O) ). The founding conference of this group
was held May 17-19, 1929 and two delegates and one alternate delegate
attended from Toronto. Spector gave a report on "The Crisis in the
Communist International" and was one of seven members elected to the
National Committee, the leadership body elected by the conference.[8]
The constitution of the Communist League describes the group’s purpose:

"to organize the Communists in the U.S. and Canada,
inside and outside the official Communist Parties, for the struggle
to preserve the fundamental teachings of Marx and Lenin in the
Communist movement and to apply them in the daily activities of the
workers in the class struggle and to reunite the Communist
International on that basis."[9]

Meanwhile, the expulsions continued — and not only from
the Party. In October, 1929 two Trotskyists, Maurice Quarter and Joe
Silver, were purged from the Workers Sports Alliance. They were leaders
of the Alliance at the time. Quarter reports, "all the non-Party members
supported us till the end, and at first even the Party and YCL members
refused to vote against us until threatened with disciplinary
measures."[10] Seventy-seven members of the YCL in Toronto were expelled
for criticizing their leadership. CPC and YCL members who had joined the
International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU) were expelled simply
for joining the union.[11] The CPC was in a state of decline at the
time; from 1929 to 1931 the number of dues-paying members dropped from
2876 to 1385.[12] This was during the "third period," called into being
by the Stalinists at the sixth congress of the Comintern in 1928.

The "third period," according to the Stalinist schema,
was the final period of capitalism, the period of its immediately
pending demise and its replacement by socialism. The tactics of the
Communist Parties internationally were marked by ultraleftism,
adventurism, sectarian "red" trade unions and opposition to the united
front. This policy was in effect until about 1934.

The early thirties in Toronto were characterized by a
climate of political reaction under the police administration of General
Draper. "Open-air meetings were dispersed on every occasion by police
clubs, speakers were cruelly man-handled and beaten. Hall owners were
prevented from renting out their assembly halls by the fear of losing
their license."[13]This situation limited the activities of both the
Trotskyists and Stalinists. For the former it meant directing most of
their attention to the latter. This was not without its difficulties.
For example, the representatives of the CLA(O) were barred from the
federal election conference organized by the CPC. (However, Quarter
attended the conference as the representative of his union local and was
elected to the executive of the conference.) [14]

As part of the climate of political reaction that
existed at the time, eight leaders of the CPC were arrested and
convicted under Section 98 of the Criminal Code. The Trotskyists
considered this an attack upon the whole working class and called for a
united struggle against the reaction. Spector wrote in the Militant:

"The workers must organize in a broad united front,
whatever their political or industrial affiliations, to protest
against the wave of terror which the capitalist authorities have let
loose against the Militants of their class. Every ounce of
energy must be thrown into the defense of the comrades and the right
of the party to continue above ground." [15]

The Trotskyists participated in the conferences
organized by the CPC to protest the attacks
and to call for the repeal of Section 98, often assuming leading
positions within the conferences.[16]

By 1930 the CLA(O) began to receive a hearing in
Montreal. Max Shachtman, a leader from the U.S., spoke there in June and
July.[17] At the second conference of the CLA(O) in October, 1931 a
small branch from Montreal was represented. [18] Albert Glotzer, another
American leader, spoke there in February, 1931. Glotzer reported that
there was only one active member in Montreal at the time of his tour.

Glotzer also spoke in Toronto to an illegally-organized
meeting attended by over 500 people. He reported twelve to fifteen
members were in the Toronto branch but that "the branch as a whole is
not active.... The branch rejected the political theses of the
conference [of the
CLA(O) in October] as well as its decisions."[19]

An internal dispute had begun to develop in the Toronto
branch some time in 1931. The National Committee considered this dispute
the result of the stagnant condition of the branch caused by the "heavy
defeats suffered by the Canadian Communist movement as a whole," the
isolation of the branch and its failure to secure a national basis for
the Left Opposition.

In addition, the heterogeneous composition of the branch
and its failure to weld an homogenous working group produced a process
of disintegration in the branch. In this situation "acrimonious personal
quarrels" began to acquire a political content.[20]

The National Committee was forced to intervene in the
dispute. At its plenum in June, 1932 presentations were made by Spector
and William Krehm, representing the two different tendencies. The
National Committee decided to support "the political tendency
represented by Comrade Spector," then a minority in the branch.[21]

Earlier, in November, 1931, the leadership of the CLA(O)
had publicly criticized the Toronto branch for not sending their
delegates officially to the Workers’ Rights and Anti-Deportation
Conference organized by the CPC. The Toronto branch reported, "Our
branch, under the specific prevailing conditions, decided, for tactical
reasons, not to ask affiliation to the conference directly as an
organization, but our comrades are active in the conference..." The
Militant, the official organ of the CLA(O), considered this a
serious error:

"The way to fight best on behalf of the Canadian
defendants and against the stifling bureaucratic methods of the
Stalinists which prevail in their activities, is not to make such
‘concessions’ to Stalinism for the sake of formal unity. Our
Comrades should at once put the Stalinists to the test on their
latest ‘turn’ on the united front in defense work, by demanding
admission to the conference in the name of the Toronto Communist
League (Opposition)."[22]

The plenum considered this the outstanding error of the
majority grouping. This grouping had begun with criticisms of Spector
for not leading the branch at one time and developed from there. The
plenum declared that "this group, by itself, lacks political stability
and is not sufficiently serious in its attitude toward the League as a
whole and its National Committee…"[23]

It was decided that the branch should start on a new
foundation and re-unite at once on the basis of the plenum resolution.
Both Spector and Krehm pledged to support the decisions of the plenum.
The plenum also decided to aim for "creating an autonomous Canadian
movement on a national scale in the shortest possible time, and to
accelerate steps toward it."[24]

This was easier said than done and at its July 29, 1932
meeting the resident National Committee demanded, "that the comrades of
both groups within two weeks of receipt of this decision definitely get
together and make preparations to carry out the N.C. resolution as a
preparatory step to the future work in Canada."[25]

About this time Jack MacDonald joined the CLA(O).
MacDonald was a founder and leader of the CPC and its secretary until
his suspension in 1930.[26] MacDonald appears to have been expelled
because he blocked with and defended the right wing of the party against
the Stalin faction. The right wing was expelled in 1929 and MacDonald
was expelled in late 1930[27] following orders from Moscow.[28] By May,
1932, MacDonald had joined the Trotskyist movement.

MacDonald sided with Spector’s tendency in the internal
dispute in the Toronto branch. By October the two groups had still not
re-united. About this time the Trotskyists slowly began to break out of
their isolation. In the summer a series of classes in Marxism, directed
by Spector, was launched. Attendance was reported at thirty-five to
forty. MacDonald and Spector were asked to speak to various Workers
Associations, forums, etc. Sales of the Militant tripled. Sales
of Unser Kamf, the Jewish-language organ of the International
Left Opposition, were increasing and the Unser Kamf Workers Club
was about to form.[29]

Spartacus Youth Club

About this time a Spartacus Youth Club was formed in
Toronto. A number of Spartacus Youth Clubs had been formed in the U.S.
and functioned as a youth group of the CLA(O).[30] The Spartacus Youth
Club (SYC) was a recruiting field for the adult movement and carried on
activities of its own. Its membership included young members of the
adult organization and people who were not members of the CLA(O).

One of the first of these activities was the formation
of the Student League of Canada at the University of Toronto. The
Student League was formed at the same meeting that dissolved the Student
League for Social Reconstruction, October 28, 1932.[31] It published the
first issue of its paper, The Spark, in November. At least four
members of the Executive Committee of seven were or would be members of
the SYC. The Student League was an organization of Marxists when it was
formed. The first issue of The Spark contains an article on
Germany from Trotsky’s writings.

By the time of the fourth issue of The Spark
(February-March) the majority of the Student League supported the YCL
and the Trotskyists had been defeated. Two members of the SYC remained
on the executive. The Student League lay fallow for a year until
November, 1934 when an attempt was made to transform it into a broad
organization and the name of its paper changed to The Student.[32]

In April, 1933 the SYC published the first issue of its
paper, October Youth. The paper was mimeographed and about
fifteen pages in length. In December, 1933 its name was changed to the
Young Militant and it continued to come out for another year.

The first recruits to the SYC were from the YCL. No
doubt the organizers of the SYC were themselves expelled from the YCL.[33]
The June-July, 1933 October Youth reports the expulsion of seven
members of the YCL for Trotskyism. The activities of the SYC centered
around the YCL, holding study classes and open forums, and distributing
the Left Opposition press. By December, 1933 there were Spartacus Youth
Clubs in Toronto, Mount Dennis and Montreal.[34]

The Break Out of Isolation

According to a report of two years later the Toronto
branch of the CLA(O) had eight or nine members in 1932.[35] This was
probably its low point in membership and probably included only the
Spector group. In November-December the Toronto branch is reported to be
"steadily increasing its membership."[36] In November, 1932 the Toronto
branch published the first issue of its newspaper, the Vanguard.

From this point the Trotskyist movement in Canada begins
to break out of its isolation. The key reasons for this were the events
in Germany and the Trotskyist response to these events. They called for
a genuine united front of all workers organizations in Germany and
warned of the imminent victory of fascism if this was not built. They
criticized the German Communist Party for refusing to do so, for
considering the German social-democrats (and all social-democrats)
social-fascists and then for failing to recognize their errors after the
triumph of Hitler. Also important in this regard was an application of
the united front to Canada: the anti-fascist demonstration of July 11,
1933.

By February 1933 the internal dispute of the Toronto
Branch had come to a conclusion. The Spector group reported to the
National Committee that:

"Immediately upon receipt of the original Plenum
resolution we loyally attempted to carry out its proposals for a
concentration [with the other group] ...Our communications were
ignored ...Only after the ultimative second resolution of the
Centre, that is a passage of four months, did we receive a letter
from a member of the Roth-Group, proposing a joint meeting, but even
then in such ‘terms’ as did not commit them to anything and still
not to any acceptance of the Plenum resolution. At this stage, our
organization could no longer entertain such a proposal."[37]

The "Roth-Krehm Group" is described as having "vanished
into thin air" and to no longer function as a group. The Spector group
(the Toronto organization) proposed to admit individuals from the other
group "who have learned from events" on their individual merits. (The
fate of William Krehm is unclear. In the fall of that year he is
reported as a public spokesperson for the CLA(O) in Montreal.) By this
time there were at least eighteen members in the Toronto
organization.[38]

During the first half of 1933 MacDonald and/or Spector
spoke to audiences of 300 to 500 who had come to hear them put forward
the position of the Left Opposition on the events in Germany. The
attitude of the Stalinists was to attempt to disrupt some of these
meetings.[39]

In the spring the Trotskyists participated in the
formation of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Conference and the English-speaking
Anti-Fascist Conference. Spector was on the Executive of the Jewish
Conference and represented it on the Executive Committee of the
English-speaking Conference. He also spoke as a representative of the
Conference at mass meetings. The SYC participated in both Conferences
and The Unser Kamf Workers Club participated in the Jewish
Anti-Fascist Conference.[40]

These two conferences, together with some trade unions,
formed a Joint Council of Action, which organized a two hour general
strike and demonstration against fascism in July 11. It was the largest
workers’ action in Canada since the Winnipeg General Strike,[41]
involving 25,000 people and more than one hundred organizations. The
Globe reported it was "the first parade of its kind permitted by the
authorities in the past twelve years," playing an important role in
defeating police repression in Toronto.[42]

The Trotskyist contingent, which carried the banner,
"Forward to Victory Under the Banner of Lenin and Trotsky," numbered 150
and included 60 workers from the Star Knitting Mills.[43]

Both Spector and MacDonald spoke at the rally at Queens
Park following the parade. In his speech Spector paid tribute to the
marchers for breaking through the police ban on meetings and urged a
continuation of the struggle for free speech and assembly and for repeal
of Section 96 and release of the eight CPCers. He also spoke on the
events in Germany.[44]

The CPC participated in the action and in fact dominated
the English-speaking conference, which voted to expel Spector even
though he was the elected representative of the Jewish Conference.[45]
In any case, this united front action "dealt a crushing blow to the
confused Stalinist theory of the "united front from below" "[45] (a
united front with the workers but not with their organizations or their
leaders, in reality no united front at all).

About the beginning of 1933 Earle Birney joined the
Trotskyist movement. Birney wrote a novel, Down the Long Table,
based on his experiences in the Trotskyist movement so it is worthwhile
to note his actual role in the movement. Birney began to study Marxism
in the fall of 1932, first coming in contact with the YCL. At a party at
the home of Harry Cassidy, Birney for the first time met some
Trotskyists and decided to join forces with them. Since Birney was
studying to finish off his Ph.D. it was decided he should not get very
much involved in local action. In the spring Birney drove out to
Vancouver, where he had a job teaching for the summer and where he was
to organize a branch of the CLA(O). He was joined there by Sylvia
Johnstone, a member of the SYC in Toronto.[46]

As for Vancouver, there were scattered forces as early
as 1931.[47] By September, 1933, Birney and Johnstone had succeeded in
establishing a branch there. Their activities that summer consisted of
distributing the Militant and the Vanguard and Trotskyist
literature. Birney led a YCL study group until they found out he was a
Trotskyist. The branch did not make any great headway during its first
year, according to a report sent to Toronto by Birney, who was in
Vancouver the next summer.[48]

During the 1933-34 school term Birney was teaching at
his old job in Salt Lake City. He joined the Communist Party there, was
eventually expelled and set up a branch of the CLA(O).[49] During
1934-35 he was in Europe, where he worked with the Trotskyist faction in
the Independent Labour Party in England and interviewed Trotsky in
Norway.[50]

During the last few years he was in the Trotskyist
movement Birney was one of the three key leaders in Canada. Birney left
the movement in January, 1940 over disagreements with the Trotskyists'
position on the War.

Down the Long Table is a novel and not an
autobiography and therefore difficult to appreciate from a historical
perspective. It is fiction based on fact in such a way that it is
difficult to separate the two. Birney does not claim that it tells the
truth about his experiences in the Trotskyist movement; we can look
forward to that in his autobiography. Take for example the "hero" of the
novel, Gordon Saunders, whose experiences are obviously based on
Birney’s own life. Like Birney, Saunders’ first contact with the radical
movement is with the YCL, who cast him off as a Trotskyist. ("Then there
are Trotskyites?") Saunders meets his first Trotskyists at a party at
the home of Professor Cathcart, who is "an economics prof mixed up with
the League for Social Reconstruction." Saunders is soon won over and
once summer comes he heads for Vancouver hopping boxcars, in true Great
Depression style (not in his own car, like Birney), and once there stays
in Hotel Universe, a flophouse for prostitutes (not the home of his
mother) and attempts to organize the Vancouver branch. Except for
Saunders’ work among the unemployed the novel henceforth is not based on
Birney’s own experiences and nothing in the book faintly resembles
Birney’s important contribution to building the Trotskyist movement
during the next six years. Down the Long Table is fiction and it
is the historian’s task to set the record straight.

The Militant in September, 1933 reported "some
good news and some bad news" from Toronto. The "bad news" was that the
Stalinist dominated Workers United Front Provincial Nomination
Conference refused to seat the Trotskyist delegates. The "good news" was
that ten times (30) as many delegates voted against the motion to
exclude them as did in a similar situation several years ago.

About the same time fourteen members of the Clara Zetkin
branch of the Canadian Labour Defence League in Toronto and three
members of the Jewish branch in Montreal were expelled. The Toronto
members were expelled for criticizing a CLDL pamphlet which contained an
attack on the International Left Opposition. Those expelled considered
it outside the bounds of the CLDL to make a political attack on
organizations opposing the Stalinists. The Montreal members were
expelled on no other charge than Trotskyism. Through the Vanguard
the Trotskyists argued that, "The Defence League can successfully
perform its defence work only if it is a non-partisan, mass
organization, free from mechanical control by a faction" (i.e., the
CPC).[51]

Following the July 11 demonstration attendance at
Trotskyist meetings in Toronto seems to have qualitatively increased.
There were 1000 to 1500 people at two meetings organized in Earlscourt
Park during August. The meetings dealt with the struggle for free speech
and assembly and the program of the newly-formed Cooperative
Commonwealth Federation (CCF).[52]

In Montreal the public meetings of the CLA(O) during
Autumn, 1933 were attracting from 100 to 300 people. The principal
speaker of the Montreal branch was William Krehm. The Montreal
Trotskyists faced harassment from the Stalinists in the form of attempts
to disrupt their meetings, removing posters advertising their meetings,
pickets at their meetings, physical attacks against individuals and of
course exclusion or expulsion from Stalinist so-called united front
conferences.[53] The statement of the Montreal branch and SYC on their
expulsion from the Anti-Fascist and Free Speech[!] Conference gives
their position on the united front:

"A genuine united front of the working class is
needed with a program of united struggle for freedom of speech and
organization and against Fascism, while guaranteeing the right of
each organization to express its criticism in a constructive
manner."[54]

Towards a New International and a New Party

Hitherto the Trotskyists were attempting to reform the
Communist International and the Communist Parties. Although expelled
they considered themselves a faction struggling to put these
organizations back on the correct revolutionary road. Following Hitler’s
rise to power and then the endorsation by the Comintern of the whole
previous Stalinist policy in Germany the Trotskyists set their sights on
building a Fourth International and new revolutionary parties.

Naturally this meant a change in policy and activity for
the Canadian Trotskyists. Public meetings attended by 700 people heard
CLA(O) spokespersons explain the need for a new International.[55] This
change is exemplified by the turn made by the SYC. They went from a
"loyal fraction" of the YCL to setting "itself the task of becoming the
revolutionary youth organization."[56] The SYC would now attempt to
"establish nuclei of young workers in the factories" and do more
extensive work among students. "Our main task will be to educate the
young workers and lead them in their daily struggles."[57] The change in
name of the paper of the SYC from October Youth to Young
Militant reflected this change in the nature of the SYC. The
Trotskyists passed from the stage of criticism to that of independent
leadership.

In the summer of 1933 some Ukrainian contacts of the
CLA(O) established a Ukrainian workers club of some thirty members. A
number of the members of this club joined the Toronto branch. The club
put out a newspaper called Robitnychi Visty (Labour News)
and published 63 issues from November, 1933 to July 28, 1936. By May,
1934 the club had contacts in every important city and rural area with a
large Ukrainian population.[58] Except for those members who were
Toronto branch, the Ukrainian group operated pretty much separately from
the branch, similar to the Ukrainians in the CPC at the time.[58a]

The Toronto branch itself was reorganized into four
territorial groups. In Mount Dennis weekly forums addressed by MacDonald
or Spector and classes in Marxism were held in addition to similar
activities held downtown. The movement had grown considerably, thus the
reorganization. [59] (*The February, 1934 Vanguard reports that
in Montreal a "growing Spartacus Club and an active senior unit are
already making their presence felt.")

Steps were taken toward the establishment of an
autonomous section of the Canadian branches of the CLA(O). March 8, 1934
the National Committee passed the following motion:

"That the Toronto E.C. [Executive Committee]
constitute the Provisional Committee (PNC), with a representative
from the Montreal group [and other groups once solidly established,
who will function in a consultative capacity on all important
questions ... The PNC to have directive powers over the groups and
branches. Decisions to be made for payment of regular dues or
percentage of dues to the centre. Such payments made to the PNC to
be used solely for national work.[60]

The "Field Group"

About April-May 1934 half a dozen members of the Toronto
branch and almost all of the Montreal branch split from the CLA(O) and
joined the Organizing Committee for a Revolutionary Workers Party.[61]
This group was set up by B.J. Field, leader of the 1934 New York hotel
workers’ strike and later a consulting economist to Wall Street
brokerage firms, and a handful of his followers, following Field’s
expulsion from the New York branch of the CLA(O) in February. Later the
name was changed to the League for a Revolutionary Workers Party, known
in Trotskyist literature as the "Fieldites" or "Field group".

Apparently the split in Canada did not have any
substantial political grounds.[62] From the point of view of the
"official" Trotskyists the Field group were ultralefts. Earle Birney
described them as very pure theoreticians who were not very much
interested in action.[63] The group in Canada published the paper,
Workers Voice and their leader was William Krehm. They affiliated to
the International Bureau of Revolutionary Socialist Parties (the London
Bureau).[63a] In the fall of 1936 the Canadian Field group launched the
Revolutionary Youth League, which published the paper Revolutionary
Youth.[63b] Sometime later there were negotiations to fuse the two
Trotskyist groups but these did not succeed.[64]

According to Ross Dowson, the Fieldites were a "dogged
and determined young group" and in the late 1930s the more active of the
two Trotskyist groups in Toronto. "They thought they could somehow build
a movement by substituting themselves for the working class." After
about 1937 they were, "from the public’s point of view the Trotskyist
movement."[65] In his autobiography, Paul Jacobs, who was a member of
the Field group in the U.S. (they did not meet with much success there),
estimates there were fifteen to twenty members in the Toronto group. The
Field group quietly passed out of existence about the beginning of World
War II.[66]

Shortly after the split of the Field group there were
about thirty-seven members in the Toronto branch. The membership is
reported to be "solidly-based proletarian" with about one-third in trade
unions and a number in the unemployed movement. Despite its size the
branch had a "large sympathetic following among the workers of this
city."[67] There were now two Spartacus Youth Clubs in Toronto, which
circulated about 300 copies per month of their paper, Young Militant.[68]
Public meetings and study classes were being held continually. Plans to
discuss the new revolutionary party and its program with such groups as
the Socialist Party and the Jewish Left Socialist Party were being made,
although the Trotskyists believed, "that in the main the new
revolutionary party in Canada will be built up on the basis of direct
recruitment rather than by negotiations with other groups." Prospects
for building the Canadian section were reported to be excellent.[69]

In Hamilton, public meetings attended by about 500
people were organized by "several contacts" there. A Hamilton branch was
formed a few months later.[70]

A branch of the CLA(O) was formed in Winnipeg through a
speaking tour of the Max Shachtman in the Spring of 1934. Shachtman’s
main meeting was attended by 350 people. The Winnipeg branch included
two leaders of an unemployed movement and a "number of active
Militants in the Ukrainian labor movement."[71]

The Workers’ Party of Canada

By September, 1934 a separate Canadian Trotskyist
organization, composed of the Canadian branches of the CLA(O), had been
formed. Obviously with the future in mind it was named the Workers’
Party of Canada. That month the Vanguard, now "the official
organ," printed the "Manifesto of the Workers’ Party of Canada," which
contained the following "program of action":

"1. STANDARD OF LIVING — Struggle for wage increases
without regard for the profit system — maximum six-hour working day
— five-day week — opposition to piece work and other forms of
speed-up — equal pay for equal work — abolition of child labor.

SOCIAL INSURANCE — Non-contributory unemployment
insurance — health and accident insurance — reduction of old age
pensions age — Mother’s Allowances for one or more dependent
children.

CIVIL LIBERTIES — Abrogation of all restrictions on
freedom of speech, assemblage and press (repeal of sedition and
censorship provisions of Criminal Code, Naturalization and
Immigration Acts, Customs Act, etc.) — liberation of all class-war
prisoners.

TRADE UNION RIGHTS — Abrogation of all restrictions
on freedom of association — the right to picket and to boycott —
prohibition of injunctions in industrial disputes — repeal of
legislation for compulsory conciliation and arbitration.

TAXATION OF CAPITAL — Abolition of all forms of
direct and indirect taxation and tariffs on articles of mass
consumption — tax-exemption and cancellation of mortgage and other
indebtedness of small impoverished non-exploiting farmers —
cumulative income, corporation and inheritance taxes — taxation of
ecclesiastical institutions.

STRUGGLE AGAINST UNEMPLOYMENT — Maintenance of the
unemployed or relief work at full trade union rates — tax-exemption
and cancellation of debt and mortgage indebtedness of unemployed —
no evictions.

THE WAR DANGER — ... The W.P. pledges itself to use
the situation created by the imperialist war to mobilize the forces
of the workers for a revolutionary struggle against capitalism. The
W.P. supports the armed struggle of the colonial people to liberate
themselves from imperialism."[72]

This program, the Manifesto explained, was set up "for
the purpose of mobilizing the masses in the struggle for control of
production and conquest of power." To accomplish this, the Workers’
Party of Canada (WPC) would "cooperate with all political and industrial
organizations of the working class in a united front on all specific
issues of common interests in the struggle against capitalism."
Elections and Parliaments were to be used for this purpose.

According to the Manifesto, the WPC would attempt to
recruit the "valuable elements of the rank and file" of the CCF and CPC
but expected new members to come in the majority from the "still
politically and industrially unorganized masses."[73]

By December the WPC had 250 members and branches in
Montreal, Toronto (90 members), Hamilton, Winnipeg and Vancouver, and
contacts in other towns. Most of these members had been members of the
CPC and YCL. Circulation of the Vanguard stood at 1200 copies and
for Robitnychi Visty, 500 copies.[74] Plans to publish the Vanguard
twice a month would be met by June.

Meanwhile, the Trotskyists were extending their
influence into the trade union field and the unemployed movement. The
WPC had members in the building, clothing, shoe and metal workers’
unions.

During the "third period" the policy of the Stalinists
was not to work in the old trade unions but to form new "revolutionary"
unions. In Canada this gave rise to the Workers’ Unity League (WUL). The
Trotskyists worked in both unions. They opposed the Stalinists’ policy
of dual unionism and called for one union for all the workers in one
industry and for the unification of the union movement. [75]

"There is no royal road to the radicalization of the
masses by the ‘short-cut’ of building pure ‘red’ trade unions which
only isolate the militants. Work in the conservative trade unions is
essential." [76]

The Trotskyists’ strategy for the trade unions was to
build a left-wing movement within the unions which would strive for
leadership on a program of trade union democracy, organization of the
unorganized, industrial unions rather than craft unions, trade union
unity and improvement of the working conditions and living standards of
the membership.[77]

The WPC was particularly active in the needle trades
unions. In the Dressmakers Union, which belonged to the WUL, they helped
form and led the Progressive Unity Group, which opposed the bureaucratic
policies of the union leadership.[78] ( Following the seventh Congress
of the Comintern the Stalinists reversed their trade union policy of the
"third period" (but said it was the same) and soon began to liquidate
the WUL.) Jack MacDonald was a delegate to the Toronto Trades and Labor
Council but had little support on the council.

In December, 1934 the WPC was reported to control a
considerable part of the leadership of the unemployed movement in
Winnipeg and to have complete control of a new unemployed organization
in Toronto.[79] The latter was probably the Toronto Unemployed Union,
whose significance in the overall unemployed movement is unknown. The
Trotskyists proposed to organize the unemployed first on a local scale
and then on a provincial and national scale, linking them up with the
struggles of the employed workers. The basis for organization was to be
around the immediate demands of the unemployed (abolish the "slave
camps", etc.).[80] The Trotskyists played a significant role among the
unemployed in York Township, particularly in the York Township Workers
Association, which led a strike of the Township relief workers in July,
1936. The WPC played a leadership role in Ward III of York Township.[81]

After the seventh Congress of the Comintern the
Communist Parties in various countries set up committees like the
Canadian League Against War and Fascism. The Stalinists sought to
involve in these committees the organizations a short time ago they had
termed "social-fascists", reflecting their new line. The Canadian
Trotskyists, although not wanted, participated in these committees as
part of a left-wing minority. They criticized the Stalinists for
spreading the idea that war could be eliminated and the rise of fascism
prevented within the capitalist system and for supporting the League of
Nations sanctions against Italy (The Trotskyists called for workers
sanctions and active support to Ethiopia).[82]

Articles in the Vanguard warning of the
likelihood of another world war appear throughout the paper’s existence.
In the case of imperialist war, the WPC advocated a policy of
"revolutionary defeatism, the doctrine that the proletariat must direct
its arms to the overthrow of its own ruling class," and defense of the
Soviet Union.[83]

Public meetings were held by the WPC, usually at the
Labour Lyceum or Labour Temple Hall to put forward their ideas on the
issues of the day. From reports in the Vanguard attendance at
these meetings averaged about 500.

The Spartacus Youth Clubs, of which there were now four
in Toronto, continued to carry on their activities. Sometime during the
summer of 1935 the name was changed to Spartacus Youth League, probably
reflecting a growth in size. The November 30, 1935 Vanguard
reports the coming publication of three pamphlets by the Spartacus Youth
League (SYL).[84]

May Day 1934 saw the Trotskyists participate and then
withdraw from the Stalinist-dominated May Day United Front Conference
because it refused their proposal for representation of the main
political currents on the May 1 platform. They then joined a May Day
conference initiated by two left-wing Jewish groups and including a few
trade unions. MacDonald chaired the May Day meeting and Spector was one
of the speakers.[85] The next May Day, "the fact that there were two
Trotskyites in a neutral committee of 83 organizations was too much for
the Communist element. The fled in anger and proceeded with their own
arrangements."[86] That May Day, 1935, there was a parade of 8,000
people in Toronto. Both Spector and MacDonald were among the speakers at
the evening rally.[87]

How did the WPC view Bennett’s New Deal, H.H. Stevens
and Social Credit? With regard to Bennett’s New Deal they were in
support of the "palliatives" such as unemployment relief and social
insurance but pointed out that:

"Bennett’s business, as an agent of big Canadian
capital, is to make capitalism work more efficiently in the interest
of the capitalist class. Bennett’s job is to organize Canadian
capitalism so that is may better compete against rival capitalist
powers."[88]

H.H. Stevens was called an "ignoramus" in economics and
it was argued:

"Stevens principal support will come from the small
merchants who have been captivated by denunciation of the chain
stores. The small manufacturers who are being squeezed out by the
big monopolists will also be potential recruits."[89]

Social Credit was described as a "wild illusion
deserving only the garbage can."[90]

From Vancouver, Earle Birney reports in July, 1934 that
he organized a group of twelve on a study-group basis. In September the
Militant reported that the Vancouver branch had doubled its
membership during the two previous months.[91] In November, 1935 and
eighteen-member branch of the Spartacus Youth League was formed. It was
reported that the SYL branch was going to publish a paper named "Young
Militant" beginning in December.[92] About this time the Vancouver
Trotskyists entered into the CCF. The Trotskyists managed to hold
operating control of the Stanley Park club of the CCF for a long time
and exerted a strong influence in the new Vancouver Centre club.[93]

Meanwhile there are reports in the Vanguard
during 1935-36 that the program of the WPC is receiving a hearing in
Calgary and Saskatoon.

In the Toronto municipal elections in January, 1934 the
Trotskyists supported the candidates of the Stalinists’ election
committee.[94] In the provincial elections later that year they did not
support the candidates of the CPC (or the CCF),[95] but in the 1935
federal election called upon workers to vote for the candidates of the
CCF and CPC. The WPC explained their support of these two parties in the
federal election not because they considered these parties to represent
"the basic revolutionary interests of the workers" (by this time they
regarded the CPC as an "unprincipled agency that merely carries out the
latest zig-zag of the Kremlin"[96]) but because they were "workers
representatives."[97]

For the Trotskyists, putting forward their own
candidates was a question of temporary expedience, not of principle.
They realized that running candidates "would provide a more favorable
opportunity of bringing our political program and position before the
masses."[98] In December, 1936 the WPC contested their first elections.
Then, the York Township branch ran two candidates in the municipal
elections, W.S. Smith for Reeve and W. Butterworth for Deputy Reeve,
Ward III. Both men were activists in the unemployed movement and Smith
was endorsed by the membership of the Silverthorne branch of the York
Township Workers Association.[99] Smith received 2864 of the nearly
12,000 votes cast in a two-way race and Butterworth received 545
votes.[100]

Entry into the CCF

More than any other factor international events
determined the fate of the Trotskyists in Canada during the 1930s. Their
analysis of the events in Germany was key to their break out of
isolation in 1933. Then, starting sometime in 1936 the WPC began a
process of decline and it was these same events that were responsible.
In Germany and in Spain and the Soviet Union (the Moscow Trials), the
workers suffered defeats. And a revolutionary movement, even with a
correct analysis, cannot be built on defeats.

The decline led the WPC leadership to grasp upon the
tactic of entry into the CCF as a solution to its problems. Actually,
just such a tactic had been the subject of an on-going debate since the
CCF was formed. Already the Trotskyists in Vancouver had entered the CCF
and the Spartacus Youth League had entered the Cooperative Commonwealth
Youth Movement, the youth group of the CCF. Following a lengthy
discussion, the WPC voted "by an extremely small majority" to enter the
CCF.[101]

In this discussion the majority argued, while the
minority disagreed, that there was a left wing with real possibilities
in the CCF.[102] In June, 1936 the Ontario provincial council, CCF
expelled four affiliated groups (two clubs, a youth group and a workers
association) and three members for participating in a joint May Day
conference with the CPC and other groups. (The WPC withdrew from the
conference because the Stalinists who controlled it would not allow the
WPC to carry its political slogans.[103]) These groups appear to be the
only left wing of any significance in the CCF around this time.[104] The
minority also argued that "the experience of the SYL proved conclusively
the non-existence of a field for revolutionary activity even in the
youth section."[105]

Ross Dowson, who was in the minority, believes the
decision to enter the CCF was an artificial and mechanical one which did
not reflect the real dynamic of the movement because "the active cadre,
the ones upon whom the entry would have to fall were opposed." In his
opinion the entry was an "action of defeat and despair, particularly on
the part of MacDonald and the leaders of the movement at that time. They
were looking for a way out of a dilemma. They themselves couldn’t get
involved in the entry."[105] In 1937 the WPC dissolved its organization
and entered the CCF.[106]

Once the entry had been carried out the top leadership
dropped out of the movement. "The entry was thrown into the laps of less
experienced comrades." The opponents of the entry did not really
participate and many supporters of the entry "became disillusioned and
dropped away." "Under these circumstances entry meant, in essence,
liquidation of the movement."[107] Dowson contends that the entry had no
element of success and that the Trotskyists had little influence within
the CCF.[108]

The Socialist Policy Group

At the convention of the Socialist Workers Party (U.S.
Trotskyists) over New Years, 1938, the Trotskyists functioning inside
the CCF and the active nucleus of the minority who had opposed the entry
were re-united for the formation of an open Socialist Policy Group (SPG)
inside the CCF. The Trotskyists planned to strengthen their fraction in
the CCF and prepare for a "complete programmatic and political fight"
with the CCF leadership, leading to a split. The SPG was to be extended
into a national tendency through the cooperation of the Trotskyists in
Vancouver, Winnipeg and other centres. Plans were made to establish a
bulletin to be used once an independent organization was formed. Any
organizational attacks by the CCF leadership were to be answered "by
energetic politicizing of the issues."[109]

In 1938 this program was more or less carried out.
Bulletins of the SPG, for CCF members only, appeared in April. The SPG
was described as a:

"voluntary educational body of CCF members whose
purpose is the discussion and clarification of vital questions of
policy within the organization.... The major purpose of the Group
will .. be the encouragement of vigorous and constructive criticism
within the CCF."[110]

Some members of the minority applied for membership in
the CCF. Murray Dowson, for example, was rejected by the Provincial
Executive when he applied.[111]

In June the Provincial Council sent an open letter to
the SPG demanding its dissolution.[112] This was followed two weeks
later by a letter demanding the dissolution of the SPG by July 12 and
"that if no reply to that effect be received by July 21 (sic) that all
known members of the Socialist Policy Group would be expelled,"[113] No
action was taken against the SPG until shortly after their program
appeared in the October issue of their bulletin. On November 16 ten of
twelve members (two absent) charged with belonging to the SPG appeared
before the Provincial Executive. The SPG asked to be examined as a group
but the executive insisted on individual interrogation. Finally, the
whole group present that night were expelled.[114] SPG requests for an
open trial were refused, as were the demands of the Humbercrest and
Dovercourt CCF clubs for re-admission of the SPG.[115]

In June the SPG began to call their bulletin
Socialist Action, which continued to be published, although
illegally, into the 1940s. From January 3, 1939 it was the official
organ of the Socialist Workers League of Canada.

In 1935 the Workers Party of Canada was one of five
organizations to sign a declaration calling for the formation of the
Fourth International. When the Founding Conference of the Fourth
International was held in September, 1938 there were no Canadian
delegates in attendance but certain American delegates held mandates
from Canada.[116] The minutes of the conference list the approximate
size of the Canadian section of the Fourth International (which became
the Socialist Workers League) as 75 members.[117]

The Socialist Workers League

In their "Program of Action" the Socialist Workers
League (SWL) argues that it is necessary to create a bridge of action
between the advanced crisis of capitalism and the backward political
knowledge of the masses in this country." To accomplish this, they
argue, a revolutionary party with a program of transitional demands is
needed.[118] In the trade unions, for example:

"The SWL agitates ... for agreements based on a
sliding scale of wages. All collective agreements should, without
allowing for decreases, insure automatic wage increases with each
monthly rise in the price of consumers’ goods. The amount of
increase would be determined not by the bosses, but by committees of
workers ...[119]

In this regard, the SWL would use demands such as
"Rising wages for rising prices," "Cut hours not wages" and "Create jobs
by reducing work hours." [120] With reference to the farmers, the
"Program of Action" explains:

"The immediate task is not complete confiscation of
farm lands but the repudiation of farm indebtedness, and the
rescuing of land from the banks and mortgage companies and monopoly
interests ...

"[But] Only a strong working class can wrest the
railroads and banks from private capital and operate them for the
benefit of the toilers on the farms and in the cities alike." [121]

The SWL’s demands were, "For joint price committees of
city workers and working farmers," "Farm machines and freighting at cost
by workers’ control," "Farm products at cost to workers by farmer
control" and "For a Militant farmer-labour party."122

In order to make the demands in the "Program of Action"
realizable, the SWL recommended the workers expropriate "the fifty big
shots of Canadian capital." To the smaller bosses the workers should
say, "Pay trade union rates or give us your factories."[123]

"What is intended is not ‘indemnification’ on the
one hand or mere vengeance on the other, but workers’ control,
elimination of super-profits to the few, of ruinous freight rates to
the farmer and the passing of rich natural resources into private
hands."[129]

Immediately following their expulsion from the CCF the
Trotskyists again entered the York Township elections, running William
Butterworth for Deputy Reeve, Ward III, as in the December, 1936
elections. Butterworth’s election program centred around demands for a
graduated income tax; better relief; abolition of relief labor; a
sliding scale of working hours with no reduction in pay, to lessen
unemployment; the right to vote for eighteen year-olds; a works program
for housing; and an investigation into the water department.[125]
Butterworth received 402 votes (eleven percent of those cast).[126]

During 1939 Carl Hichin and Tom Montague, both
previously leading members of the CPC in their area, joined the SWL.
Hichin was prairie organizer for the SWL and succeeded in establishing
branches in Winnipeg, Saskatoon and Wiseton, Saskatchewan. Montague was
chairman of the York Unemployed Union.[127] The York unemployed, under
the leadership of Montague and Butterworth, held a lengthy strike
against a cut in relief pay. The strike included a demonstration of 2500
workers April 24, 1939.[128]

Of course the big political issue was the war. The
following quote from Socialist Action explains the position of the SWL:

"The fact that Britain is a ‘democracy’ is not
decisive; England’s capitalist democracy exists only on the basis of
its own murderous dictatorship over millions in India and Africa,
and it is a democracy which will be discarded, as in 1914, as soon
as war is declared. If the British ‘homeland’ is invaded, British
workers have nothing to gain in defending it until first they
establish their own revolutionary workers’ government. And until
they do that, the Canadian masses have nothing to gain by fighting
for England."

The SWL stood "for strike, boycott and other forms of
organized independent working class resistance to Canadian participation
in the war."[130] In September the SWL was declared illegal and
Socialist Action was banned. The paper continued to publish but in
mimeographed form and from Montreal.

On September 15, Frank Watson was arrested for making an
anti-war speech at an open-air meeting in Toronto of the SWL and charged
under Section 39 of the Defense of Canada Regulations covering
statements "intended or likely to prejudice recruiting." Watson was
convicted and sentenced to one year or six months and $300, thereby
becoming the first victim of the regulations. Of the first cases
reported, his sentence was reported to be the severest.[131] The SWL
organized a defense committee for Watson which received moral and
financial support from various organizations and individuals across
Canada and in the U.S.[132] The Defense Committee unsuccessfully
appealed Watson’s sentence and he was released after serving the six
months.[133]

The real task of the Trotskyists during the war was to
keep their organization alive, against great odds. The organization,
only recently re-united, was declared illegal. The leadership at the
time was politically inexperienced and soon collapsed under the pressure
of events The three top leaders all walked away from the movement. The
task of keeping it alive fell to a handful of members, including Ross
Dowson.[134]

In 1942 connections were renewed with the Trotskyists in
other centres, leading to a national conference in 1944 (the first one)
and then to the formation of the Revolutionary Workers Party in 1946.
Its successor today is the League for Socialist Action/Ligue Socialiste
Ouvriere.

The Trotskyist movement was not an isolated phenomena of
that phenomenal decade of the Great Depression. It is in terms of their
ideas that the Trotskyists must be considered and those ideas had a past
and have a future. Although the ideas and the movement were not a
product of the Depression, the Depression still had its impact. The
economic crisis caused a profound radicalization among people but at the
same time produced a cynicism difficult for the Trotskyists to overcome.
The Depression meant money was scarce and, though it may be ironic,
money is needed to build a socialist movement. As the Vanguard
warned in what turned out to be its last issue:

"The Vanguard is in serious danger. Unless
funds are immediately rushed to its aid we face a very real danger
of not being able to put the next issue out." [135]

Spector and MacDonald were certainly capable leaders but
they were "generals without an army," as the Stalinists not so fondly
called them. However, they did not train any new leaders to replace them
and perhaps that was the Trotskyist movement’s greatest obstacle in the
1930s. The Trotskyists played a significant role in bringing about the
July 11, 1933 anti-fascist demonstration, which was one of the largest
worker’s actions in Canadian labour history. The entry into the CCF was
in every way a failure. Re-grouped as the SWL in late 1933, the movement
was unable to consolidate itself before the outbreak of World War II.

As I have mentioned, it was international events,
particularly the major defeats for workers in various countries, that
determined the fate of the Canadian Trotskyists during the Depression.
That was what Leon Trotsky explained to those two Canadians who
interviewed him in Norway in 1935 for the Vanguard:

"Great defeats especially when they are caused by
the bankruptcy of their own leadership, do not make the workers more
revolutionary but demoralize their organization for a long time.
That is why, although the Left Opposition in Russia predicted the
Chinese defeat that Stalinism caused, yet the defeat hurt the Left
Opposition and strengthened Stalin’s bureaucracy in the SU (Soviet
Union) ... That is why we must explain the German defeat, patiently
explain. How can we expect that we, the left wing of the world
proletariat, who have suffered one defeat after another can have
become in such a period stronger and more powerful?"[136]

Finally, I must point out that Earl Birney was wrong
when he wrote at the end of Down the Long Table:

"Yet already the rebellions of the Ronnies had
passed into a limbo from which only the artist would ever again seek
to rescue them."[137]

Footnotes

See William Rodney, Soldiers of the
International (University of Toronto Press, 1968).

For further information on the Trotskyist
movement internationally see the books by Frank and Reisner listed
in the bibliography.

Birney interview.
63a. For more information on the London Bureau, see Reisner,
Documents of the Fourth International, p. 93ff.
63b. Vanguard, December, 1936, p. 3.

Dowson interview.

Ibid.

Paul Jacobs, Is Curly Jewish? (New York:
Atheneum, 1965), p. 79 and Dowson interview. The impression I got
from my interview with Dowson is that the Field group were much
bigger than Jacobs’ estimate. However, another former Trotskyist has
given me a figure for 1939 that is the same as Jacobs’. Jacobs also
writes that members of the Canadian Field group fled to the U.S. at
the outbreak of the war and stayed with him (p. 104).